Double Whammy

Along with a mild flare and a new fun symptom (more on that in a minute), I got a call from the nurse saying that my blood tests flagged my liver function panels as high. For me this means dropping down to four doses of methotrexate per week instead of six and following up with another blood test in a month. This scares me, and is especially bad news to get on a day when your symptoms feel worse than they have in awhile. I don’t want to mess with my meds if their helping. Will my symptoms flare? Will it slow remission progress? So many questions.

Also, there’s this sense of I coulda done more tohelp my liver while it’s working so hard to process these crazy chemo drugs. I haven’t 100 percent abstained from alcohol (my rheumy said five drinks per week was fine) for example. For those of you on mtx, did you cut alcohol completely? Anything else you’re doing to help your liver?

And then there’s this weird feeling I’ve had all day as if the blood in my arms is burning. Like my arms are on fire from the inside out, especially by my elbows. Has anyone experienced anything like this? Is it a vitamin deficiency, med side effect or RA side effect? Or maybe I’m going crazy. I’ll be asking my rheumy tomorrow, so I’ll let you know what he says.

Despite the burning and flare symptoms, I made myself lift some weights and do some yoga. The distraction was great at least, but now it’s back to burning.